Habeas Dessert- Golden Harvest

After my last post, I realized that I never posted this article from my law school newspaper. It's from August, 2011. 

If you ever find yourself in Lansing early in the morning, hungry and looking for breakfast (and have

some time to kill), I’ve got the spot for you. Golden Harvest is a Lansing institution, nestled in the Old Town area on the north side of the city. Sandwiched into a residential neighborhood, the place is tiny, with seating for 35 people. The regulars are willing to wait outside in line for an hour before they even sit down.

That’s when the fun begins.

The walls of Golden Harvest are covered with, for lack of a better word, stuff. From old license plates to signs proclaiming “North Lansing Against the World” to their signature skull and cross fork-and knife, the place looks like a flea market exploded, in the best, most pleasantly kitsch-y kind of way.

If you’re lucky, you get to sit at a table. If you’re really lucky, you get to sit at the counter and watch your food being prepared. On my latest visit, I couldn’t resist the waffle with strawberries and Nutella. One of my dining companions had one of the breakfast specials- a sandwich of cheddar, bacon, egg, and avocado on a croissant. We split our dishes with each other and could barely squeeze in a few bites of our oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, pecans, and grilled banana.

Don’t judge me. I went for a run later that day.

My other companion decided on the Half a Hungry Man. You’d better be a starving man, and a full-grown one at that, if you’re going to eat this meal. It was monstrous. The meal came with two eggs, a choice of meat, potatoes, toast, and one pancake. The pancake was, approximately, the weight of a Constitutional Law textbook. The heavy blue one--the one Schindler and Munroe use.

We had coffee, which I noticed was Lansing-roasted Paramount Coffee. Our dining soundtrack included songs from James Brown, M.I.A, and Prodigy, and our fellow diners included everyone from local attorneys to factory workers. The food was fresh, hot, and cooked to order right in front of us. For the money, the atmosphere, and the delicious food, you can’t beat Golden Harvest.

You can find them at 1625 N. Turner Street in Lansing. Golden Harvest is open from Monday to

Friday, 7am to 2:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 2:30pm. Get there early, and bring your cash, because otherwise you’ll be washing dishes.